An Inexplicable Attraction: My Fifty Years of Ocean Sailing

by Eric B. Forsyth

Overview

Sailing well into his eighties, Captain Eric Forsyth shows in his book, An Inexplicable Attraction: My Fifty Years of Ocean Sailing, that age need not be a barrier to an adventurous retirement. His love of ocean sailing was ignited in 1964 when he crossed the Atlantic with his wife, Edith, crewing aboard a friend’s 46-foot boat. For more than fifty years, mostly aboard his sturdy cutter Fiona, Forsyth has cruised the oceans of the world, making voyages that included two circumnavigations of the globe, cruises through the Northwest Passage and to the Baltic, and several excursions to both the Arctic and Antarctic. His stories will appeal to all sailors, whether active or armchair, and to travel buffs with a penchant for remote places and their histories.

On a more serious side, Forsyth has seen many countries that he visited over the decades change from
languorous oligarchies to developing democracies with a thriving middle class. Like the U.S., they have a
profligate appetite for fossil fuel, which is not a sustainable resource in the long run. He suggests ways of
bringing attention to this global problem.

Captain Forsyth has been honored by fellow sailors with the Seven Seas Award from the Seven Seas Cruising
Association, and the Blue Water Medal, given annually by the Cruising Club of America to a single amateur
sailor worldwide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780692895061
Publisher:	Yacht Fiona Books
Publication date:	03/31/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	26 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Eric Forsyth grew up in Bolton, England. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Manchester University, he served as an RAF fighter pilot in the 1950s. He obtained a master's degree at Toronto University in 1960 and then worked until his retirement in 1995 at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York. He led the development at Brookhaven of superconducting cables suitable for very high capacity underground AC transmission systems. In 1986 he was appointed chair of the Accelerator Development Department, which was responsible for the construction and design of several particle accelerators, including preconstruction design and planning of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, now the largest nuclear physics research tool in the U.S. Forsyth is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE), and in 2007 he was presented with the Herman Halperin Award for Power Transmission and Distribution development. This is the highest distinction awarded annually by the IEEE for research in this field. Since retirement he has twice taken his sailboat around the world and sailed to both polar regions several times, including a transit of the Northwest Passage. In 2000, he was awarded the Blue Water Medal by the Cruising Club of America, an honor given annually to one amateur sailor worldwide. Eric married Edith, a physician, in 1958, and they had two children, a son, Colin, and a daughter, Brenda.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Route to Retirement Chapter 1: About Fiona Chapter 2: Around the World via the Suez and Panama Canals Chapter 3: Fiona's First Cruise to the Antarctic Chapter 4: The Arctic, Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Portugal, and the Caribbean Chapter 5: Circumnavigating the World Eastabout Chapter 6: Cruise to Ireland, the Baltic, England, Portugal, Brazil and the Falklands Chapter 7: Cruise to Antarctica Again Chapter 8: A Summer Cruise to Greenland Chapter 9: Around North America via the Northwest Passage Chapter 10: A Cruise to Some Small Atlantic Islands Chapter 11: A Frustrated Attempt to Circumnavigate Antarctica Chapter 12: Long Distance Ocean Cruising-The Nuts and Bolts Chapter 13: Reflections

Editorial Reviews

KIRKUS REVIEWS. Starred Review, posted online 2/28/2018: "A live-aboard sailor recalls five decades and 300,000 nautical miles at sea in this debut memoir with an environmentalist edge. Forsyth admits that he's partial to the idea of escape. ... This is a lovingly compiled work, with charts and photographs that effectively complement the narrative. It will be a joy for anyone familiar with deep-water sailing and an inspiration for those eager to try it. An intrepid, educational, and thoroughly enjoyable voyage."

OCEAN NAVIGATOR, November 2017, by Peter Stoops. If you like cruising, ocean passages or visiting exotic places, read this book. ... It's all presented in Mr. Forsyth's matter-of-fact, often tongue-in-cheek style that underscores the humor and patience one needs when voyaging. While I envy his ability to act on his love of sailing, I am also grateful that he can share his experiences with us. An Inexplicable Attraction is second best to actually being there."

WINDCHECK MAGAZINE, July 2017: "Sailing out of Weeks Yacht Yard in Patchogue, NY, Captain Eric Forsyth has logged approximately 300,000 nautical miles .... An Inexplicable Attraction is a very entertaining compilation of these adventures."

A JOURNEY ON THE SEA, by Chuck Anderson in The Long Island Advance, 6/22/17:"This book is a compendium of information for sailors who wish to follow Forsyth's voyages, as well as a fascinating read for armchair travelers.... The author also makes some timely and relevant observations about the state of the world: the melting ice caps, the inexorable depletion of fossil fuels, and the garbage fouling the oceans. Forsyth comes to some significant conclusions -- that he prefers the journey to the destination."

From the Publisher

★ 2018-02-28
A live-aboard sailor recalls five decades and 300,000 nautical miles at sea in this debut memoir with an environmentalist edge.Forsyth admits that he's partial to the idea of escape. For starters, he escaped working in the cotton mills of Lancashire, England, by going to university and then joining the Royal Air Force. When his squadron was disbanded, he escaped England for Canada, emigrating in 1957 with his future wife, Edith. Soon, sailing also became a form of escape in itself. He and Edith had their first taste of it in 1961, chartering two bunks on a 78-foot ketch sailing around the tropics. After crewing on a number of other vessels, the couple purchased their first boat, Iona, in 1965. The memoir then documents the building and captaining of Fiona, a 42-foot cutter upon which Forsyth would do most of his travels. There were many breathtaking voyages, including two global circumnavigations and trips to the Arctic and Antarctic, the Baltic Sea,and the Panama Canal, among others. The memoir is also a tender love letter to Edith, who died in 1991. The tone of the book is likable from the outset; Forsyth is knowledgeable, earnest, and endearingly modest given the magnitude of his achievements. His sense of understatement is typified in his account of meeting the prime minister of Tonga: "As I sauntered up in my scruffy shorts and t-shirt, the Prime Minister was handing out long service medals to local officials. Despite my appearance, I was invited to the official luncheon, which was already laid out on the grass, covered with lace to keep the flies off." Yet beneath Forsyth's affable raconteurship lies a vital message, as during 50 years of sailing, he's witnessed an alarming change to the environment: "I have often wondered which societies that I have visited by boat would be able to survive in a post-fossil fuel age." This is a lovingly compiled work, with charts and photographs that effectively complement the narrative. It will be a joy for anyone familiar with deep-water sailing and an inspiration for those eager to try it. An intrepid, educational, and thoroughly enjoyable voyage.

Kirkus Reviews